Brutalism: Love It or Hate It

Brutalist architecture gained momentum in the United Kingdom from 1950s to the mid 1970s, emerging from the modernist architectural movement. The English architects Alison and Peter Smithson coined the term in 1954, from the French béton brut, or “raw concrete”. The term established itself in the public lexicon after British architectural critic Reyner Banham used it in the title of his 1966 book, “The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?”, following which, it became an umbrella term for a variety of architectural disciplines. (Click photos for image sources.)